Waterfalls at Hazelbrook and Woodford – 21 March 2017

I was heading up the mountains by train. On the way I looked at my phone to see the rainfall radar and look at the Scenic Railway webcam. Conditions did not look too good higher up, so I got off the train at Hazelbrook and headed down Oakland Road and then down the track to Horseshoe Falls.

Oakland Falls

It ended up raining lightly on and off most of the day.  The creek had a good flow and the lighting was quite subdued – good conditions to photograph the waterfalls. The creek starts with a few small cascades, and later there is larger waterfall. This is the one I think is Fairy Falls. 

Upper cascades

Fairy Falls

Below that are Horseshoe Falls which lies in a rainforest amphitheatre. A few trees had fallen down next to the waterfall making photographic composition a bit tricky.

Horseshoe Falls

I then headed off on a side track to Glow Worm Nook. On the way are some nice cascades.

Glow Worm Nook Falls

Glow Worm Nook Falls are only worth going to see either after good rain or at night to see the glow worms in the cave next the waterfall.

I then headed back to Horseshoe Falls and continued on the track down the valley. On the way, I deviated off the track to the top of a waterfall I had seen on my last trip. This is the one I think is called Lena Falls. I took some photos from the top of the falls and then looked for a way down. The creek enters a narrow ravine here, but the drop is only about 2 metres. I climbed down on a small tree next to the waterfall and then after taking more photos at the bottom continued a short way to the next drop. It is another similar waterfall or about 2 metres, but easier to climb down and it is also attractive from the bottom.

Lena Falls

I then climbed back up both the small waterfall and back to the track. I continued along it down to Oakland Falls and spent a fair bit of time there taking more photos.

Oakland Falls

Below Oakland Falls, the track continues down to a creek junction. In this region were a fair few fungi – more photos.

At the junction, I headed up to Burgess Falls. Again a reasonable flow made things a lot better for photography.

Burgess Falls

From there I headed back up the higher level track back to Horseshoe Falls and back to Oakland Road. Back at the station, I had lunch and checked train times. I figured I would have enough time to get off at Woodford and take advantage of the good flows in the creeks to get some photos of the waterfalls north of the town.

I detrained at Woodford and talked up the highway past the Woodford Academy and turned off a side road down to the start of the Transit of venus Walk.

Mabel Falls

A short way along the track are Mabel Falls and not far past that are Edith Falls. The latter are quite hard to photograph because of rocks, trees and a deep pool.

Edith Falls

I then continued on to Hazel Falls.

Hazel Falls

After more photos I continued on the track and continued back part way along a fire trail, and then back up the track to Mabel Falls and the road. As I reached the road, the rain became much heavier, but I did not mind, it was not far back to the station.

More photos from this excursion are online – Hazelbrook Waterfalls here, Hazelbrook fungi photos here and the Transit of Venus Walk here.